About Justice
The Near Future
QWAG has identified five inquiries that should be given priority within the Federal jurisdiction and five more from the Queensland state jurisdiction that have strong Federal associations or implications.
The question that QWAG poses about these proposed inquiries are:
- How critical to the success of these proposed inquiries would be the disclosures from whistleblowers?; and
- What would likely happen to such whistleblowers under current protection legislation
Those proposed inquiries are:
The Priority Inquiries Required In Federal And State Jurisdictions
Below are the priorities derived by QWAG for inquiries and royal commissions, given the state of knowledge of QWAG, its members and networks about the health of the existing legislation (and institutional and policy) frameworks in Australia and Queensland.
The Five Highest In The Federal Jurisdiction
BANKS and BANKING
Issue: Allegations broadly based over several decades from many types of customers of allegedly systemic unfair and disadvantageous treatment of customers, where all previous attempts to turn the bank industry to still profitable but ethical banking practices may have been unsuccessful or have been perceived to be unsuccessful.
Recommended Inquiry: A Royal Commission by a panel of three independent persons from banking, whistleblowing, law and customer service backgrounds, with bipartisan endorsement of the panel members selected from three of these fields, each being free of any reasonable claims of any conflict of interest.
AUSTRALIAN DEFENCE FORCE AND VETERANS AFFAIRS
Issue: Institutional response to disclosures of abuse and rough justice in the Australian Defence Force, including the performances of the Office of the Defence Force Ombudsman, the Office of the Chief of the Defence Force, the Office of the Service Chiefs, and the Offices of the Inspectors General; and to practices used in veterans affairs damaging to veterans during the processes of application for assistance with injuries sustained and/or aggravated during their service for Australia.
Recommended Inquiry: A Royal Commission by a panel of three independent persons from trade union, whistleblowing, law and defence service at company/squadron/ship level, with bipartisan endorsement of the panel members selected from these fields, each being free of any reasonable claims of any conflict of interest.
CARE of the AGED
Issue: Institutional response to disclosures of assault and other crimes against the elderly in care, including the Commonwealth Ombudsman’s Office, State and Federal Police, State and Federal Hospitals, Government Departments and other agencies such as Guardians and Charities.
Recommended Inquiry: A Royal Commission by a panel of three independent persons from police, whistleblowing, law and/or nursing care backgrounds, with bipartisan endorsement of the panel members selected from three of these fields, each being free of any reasonable claims of any conflict of interest.
CONDUCT OF INQUIRIES AND ROYAL COMMISSIONS
Issue: The poor performance of inquiries and Royal Commissions in addressing the matters of public interest that have led to the establishment of those inquiries, for the purpose of identifying procedures for the establishment and conduct of such inquiries in the future, procedures that will influence a fair, proper and thorough process and prevent any manipulations of such inquiries towards a biased or otherwise ineffective result.
Recommended Inquiry: A Royal Commission by a panel of three independent persons from the parliament, from whistleblowing, from law and/or from the community, with bipartisan endorsement of the panel members selected from three of these fields, each being free of any reasonable claims of any conflict of interest.
GOVERNANCE of TRADE UNIONS AND NOT-FOR-PROFIT ORGANISATIONS
Issue: Institutional response to disclosures of practices used in the governance of trade unions and not-for-profit organisations, including the Fair Works agencies and Federal and State trade union courts, tribunals, commissions, departments and other agencies.
Recommended Inquiry: A quasi-judicial inquiry by a panel of three independent persons from financial auditing, from whistleblowing, from law and/or from trade unionism, with bipartisan endorsement of the panel members selected from three of these fields, each being free of any reasonable claims of any conflict of interest.
Other candidate issues proposed by members and by the whistleblower network that are not currently rated as high as the above include Care of Persons in Offshore Detention, Deaths and Bashings and Abuse in Custody, and Treatment of East Timor.
The Five Highest in the Queensland Juristiction
THE QUEENSLAND JUDICIAL SYSTEM AND THE JUDICIARY
Issue: Allegations broadly based over recent years from different stakeholders against the performances and behaviours of members of the judiciary and of judicial institutions, including the Legal Services Commission and practitioner societies, the Office of the Crown Solicitor, and the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions.
Recommended Inquiry: A Royal Commission by a panel of three interstate retired senior judges approved by the Queensland Legislative Assembly, each from different States or Territories, with bipartisan endorsement of the panel members, each being free of any reasonable claims of any conflict of interest.
FLOOD STUDIES AND INQUIRIES
Issue: Insufficiencies in certain flood inquiries and flood studies conducted in Queensland since 2010, and the omission of upgrades to Wivenhoe Dam and Somerset Dam from priority infrastructure programs, with regard to the issues of dam safety, the role of the Bureau of Meteorology and the responsibilities and ethics of professional organisations;
Recommended Inquiry: A quasi-judicial inquiry by a panel of three independent persons from risk management, from whistleblowing, from law and/or from dam safety, with bipartisan endorsement of the panel members selected from three of these fields, each being free of any reasonable claims of any conflict of interest.
DESTRUCTION and DISPOSAL OF EVIDENCE
Issue: The accumulation of allegations of destruction or disposal by government agencies of documents sought by citizens for intended litigation or litigation already afoot. A decision by a Cabinet two decades ago in the Heiner Affair, may have become a routine practice amongst middle level bureaucrats. Entities may be using practices, unaffected by the attention of law enforcement agencies already compromised or confused by the example set by institutions when the destruction of the Heiner documents was disclosed;
Recommended Inquiry: A Royal Commission by a panel of three independent persons from trade union, whistleblowing, law and parliamentary service, with bipartisan endorsement of the panel members selected from these fields, each being free of any reasonable claims of any conflict of interest.
TRANSFERS OF WHISTLEBLOWERS
Issue: Institutional response to disclosures of transfers of public officers and private sector employees after they make public interest disclosures of suspected wrongdoing by their public sector or private sector employer, including but not limited to those who can demonstrate that they received such a transfer within one year of the date of their disclosure, or within one year of any subsequent action taken by them associated with that disclosure or any form of application alleging suspected reprisal as a result of that disclosure.
Recommended Inquiry: A quasi-judicial inquiry by a panel of three independent persons from an organisational management consultancy, whistleblowing, law and/or regulatory watchdog authority, with bipartisan endorsement of the panel members selected from three of these fields, each being free of any reasonable claims of any conflict of interest.
GOVERNMENT AS A MODEL LITIGANT
Issue: Behaviours by government lawyers or agencies acting under legal advice, in response to litigation taken by individuals against the Queensland Government or its agencies.
Recommended Inquiry: A Royal Commission by a panel of three independent persons from the community, from whistleblowing, from law and/or from public service, with bipartisan endorsement of the panel members selected from three of these fields, each being free of any reasonable claims of any conflict of interest.
Other candidate issues proposed by members or by the whistleblower network, that are not currently rated as high as the above, include Rights to the Use and Enjoyment of Land, Abandonment and non-Rehabilitation of Mine Sites, Politicisation of the Queensland Public Service, and Pollution of the Great Barrier Reef.
Sufficient examples may exist which may indicate a lack of performance of watchdog authorities and law enforcement in dealing with decades of past public interest disclosures. Governments may be invested in the continuation of existing responses, it has been alleged.
Learnings. The pattern that may be emerging from the above two lists is that the issues for the Federal Jurisdiction are mainly (80%) belonging to agencies and industries, while for Queensland the issues mainly (80%) pertain to the justice framework. QWAG attributes that difference in significant part to the impact of Sword organisations in Queensland on the justice system, largely by non-enforcement of the law, tricks played upon whistleblowers seeking investigation of disclosures, and actions taken that denied proper consideration of matters before the Courts.